Starting a long term branded business - looking for any advice.

A friend of mine has approached me with a product, proposing we start a business together and I was immediately hooked at the idea of having something of my own rather than selling other people's products.

The product is seasonal but we have done A LOT of searching and found nothing like it. I have contacted people from Alibaba for quotes and they can make what we would need for around 10 cents (USD) and I'd say each product would sell for about $10.

Before taking this any further we would just like any advice on things to look out for when using Alibaba or similar sites, how to market it (brand name vs keyword) or anything you feel could help us as I'm used to selling other peoples products not forming a brand.

Note that adblockers might block our captcha, and other functionality on BHW so if you don't see the captcha or see reduced functionality please disable adblockers to ensure full functionality, note we only allow relevant management verified ads on BHW.